The African Development Bank, AfDB, has strongly denied that its Ppresident, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, had stepped aside from his exalted office following some yet-to-be-substantiated corruption allegations against him.
This development punctured a big hole in the stories published by Bloomberg and some online news portals, claiming that Adesina had stepped aside to pave the way for “independent investigation”.
Mr. Victor Oladokun, Director of Communication and External Relations, took to his twitter handle to dismiss the reports, declaring that:
“The following has been doing the rounds on social media and in the publication below. The information is blatantly false and fits a deliberate well-orchestrated campaign of calumny and misinformation. #AkinwumiAdesina has not stepped down and is still President of African Development Bank, Africa’s premier development finance institution.”
Quoting “informed” sources, some Nigerian newspapers have reported that the ‘Board of Governors of the AfDB had, in fact, cleared Dr. Adesina of the allegations after a diligent investigation into the matter by its ethics committee.
Describing the Bloomberg report as “false”, the “informed” source said: “The Bank’s Board of Governors has not conceded to America’s demands”, adding that to do so would be to concede to the implied position that the bank’s internal structures were compromised.
“The full course of the Bank’s internal framework was resorted to with the United States in tow, and the Whistleblowers’ allegations against Adesina were declared to be spurious.
“Now the three American officials involved in this show of shame have resorted to thuggery and fake news as their medium for besmearing an otherwise respected institution.”